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EXHIBITIONS
Most of Rome’s museums and galleries have reopened to the public following the covid-19 lockdown. Advance booking is mandatory and the wearing of masks in obligatory, with guests required to pass through a thermo-scanner on arrival. The lack of tourists means that now is a great time to enjoy Rome’s relatively crowd-free museums and exhibitions.
THE TORLONIA MARBLES: COLLECTING MASTERPIECES
25 SEPT-27 JUNE The legendary Torlonia Collection, considered by many as the world’s most important private collection of ancient marble sculptures, will at long last go on public display in Rome. The much-anticipated exhibition was originally due to launch in April but was postponed due to the covid-19 crisis. Palazzo Caffarelli at the city’s Capitoline Museums will display 96 pieces from the priceless collection of Palazzo Caffarelli is set to host the Torlonia Marbles. 620 ancient sculptures in the exhibition. The revered “collection of collections”, which comprises come to light after being largely access to the palace’s 77 rooms was marble, bronze and alabaster hidden away for 70 years. The granted only occasionally to experts statues, busts, bas-reliefs and former Museo Torlonia opened or visiting dignitaries. In 1976 the sarcophagi dating to the ancient in 1875 on Via della Lungara museum closed definitively, to Roman era – amassed between in Rome’s Trastevere quarter, make way for luxury apartments, the 15th- and 19th centuries – will however in the post-war period and the priceless collection was moved to the basement of another private Roman palace owned by the aristocratic Torlonia family. For more than four decades the collection has been kept in storage, despite attempts by successive governments to persuade the noble family to either sell or display the works in public. Now, thanks to several years of talks between Italy’s culture minister Dario Franceschini and the Torlonia Foundation – the organisation that administers the family’s assets – some of the collection’s most important marble and alabaster works will go on public display Untitled work by Mimmo Paladino for Back to Nature at Villa Borghese. in Italy, before travelling abroad. The works have been restored in a
project financed by luxury jeweller Bulgari, and there are reportedly plans to find a venue in Rome in which to display the collection to the public on a permanent basis. For exhibition details see Musei Capitolini website. Palazzo Caffarelli, Capitoline Museums, tel. 060608, www.museicapitolini.org.
DOMENICO BIANCHI: NEW PAINTINGS
24 SEPT-NOV Roman artist Domenico Bianchi shows new large-scale works, made using wax and cherry wood, and a group of watercolours on paper, in a solo exhibition at the Lorcan O’Neill Gallery. Bianchi is known for the recurrent use of biomorphic signs in his works, and for the use of materials that interact with light, such as precious metals, fibreglass and polished wood. Using an ancient Roman technique, rediscovered in the 1950s by Jasper Johns, Bianchi manipulates wax as if it were paint. Over the course of his 40-year career, the Rome-based artist collaborated with some of the most important figures of the Arte Povera movement, including Jannis Kounellis, Mario and Marisa Merz, and Michelangelo Pistoletto.
Happy Choppers by Banksy at Chiostro del Bramante.
Rome honours Alberto Sordi with an exhibition to mark the centenary of his birth.
Galleria Lorcan O’Neill, Vicolo dei Catinari 3, tel. 0668892980, www. lorcanoneill.com.
15 SEPT-13 DEC Rome’s Villa Borghese park will host a free outdoor exhibition project this autumn, titled Back to Nature, curated by Costantino D’Orazio. The park will host a nucleus of outdoor installations, designed or specially reinvented for the occasion by artists such as Andreco, Mario Merz, Mimmo Paladino, Benedetto Pietromarchi, Davide Rivalta, Grazia Toderi, Edoardo Tresoldi and Nico Vascellari. In addition there will be musical performances and projects by street artists. Casina dell’Orologio - Piazza di Siena, Villa Borghese.
BANSKY: A VISUAL PROTEST
8 SEPT-11 APRIL Banksy, the anonymous British street artist, is the subject of an exhibition at Chiostro del Bramante. The show features around 80 works by Banksy – known for his powerful, satirical and thought-provoking murals – touching on themes close to the artist’s heart: war, wealth, poverty, animals, globalisation, consumerism, politics, power and the environment. The exhibited works, created between 2001 and 2017, include well known images such as Love is in the Air, Girl with Balloon, Queen Vic, Napalm, Toxic Mary, HMV, as well as the designs for the book Wall & Piece and projects for vinyl and CD covers. The exhibition will offer an insight into the mysterious world of Banksy, documenting the techniques used in his works as well as his hard-hitting themes. Visitors will also have the chance to admire Raphael’s fresco Sibille e Angeli from a window of the first floor of the Chiostro. It was commissioned in 1515 as part of the decoration of the adjoining Basilica di S. Maria della Pace. Chiostro del Bramante, Via Arco della Pace 5, tel. 0668809035, www.chiostrodelbramante.it.
ALBERTO SORDI 1920-2020
16 SEPT-31 JAN Rome hosts an exhibition dedicated to the life and career of the muchloved Roman actor Alberto Sordi (1920-2003) at his former residence near the Baths of Caracalla. The multimedia show takes place in various rooms of Sordi’s private villa, which has never been open to the public before. The exhibition also highlights the private side to Sordi who is best remembered for his roles in films such as Un americano a Roma, Il Marchese del Grillo, Il Vigile and I Vitelloni. In addition to being an actor, Sordi was a singer, voice actor, director and screenwriter. During his 60-year career, he played mainly comic roles, enlivened by his trademark Roman accent. When Sordi died in 2003 more than
Barack Obama by Giovanni Gastel at MAXXI.
250,000 people attending his funeral in S. Giovanni. Rome subsequently renamed the prestigious Galleria Colonna, on Via del Corso, in honour of one of its favourite sons. Villa Sordi, Piazzale Numa Pompilio. For visiting times see city culture website, www.060608.it.
GIOVANNI GASTEL: THE PEOPLE I LIKE
15 SEPT-24 NOV MAXXI dedicates an exhibition to Milan photographer Giovanni Gastel, showcasing more than 200 portraits of famous people he met over the course of his 40-year career. The show features more than 200 of Gastel’s “soul portraits” of personalities from the world of culture, art, fashion, music, entertainment, sport and politics, from Barack Obama to Bebe Vio, Monica Bellucci to Vasco Rossi. MAXXI, Via Guido Reni 4A, www. maxxi.art.
THE HOUSE OF THE RISING LIGHT
30 JULY-18 SEPT Dorothy Circus Gallery Rome stages The House of the Rising Light, a group show featuring 42 Asian artists from various countries. Comprising sculpture, photography and contemporary painting, the collective exhibition spans a wide range of techniques and trends, both traditional and modern, from Japanese figurative paintings and sculpture to street art from the Philippines. Dorothy Circus Gallery, Via dei Pettinari 76, tel. 0668805928, www.dorothycircusgallery.it.
PER GIOCO
25 JULY-10 JAN Rome displays an exhibition of vintage toys, including doll houses, cars, trains, spinning tops, magic lanterns, clowns and music boxes at the Museo di Roma Palazzo Braschi. Under its full title Per Gioco. La collezione dei giocattoli antichi della Sovrintendenza Capitolina the exhibition focuses on the collection of vintage toys acquired in recent years by the city. The objects on show were procured mainly between 1860 and 1930, during the so-called “golden age” of toys. They include castles with toy soldiers, farms with animals, magic lanterns, sledges, planes and gliders, marbles, kites and rocking horses. Highlights include a royal doll house that once belonged to the Queen of Sweden, dating from the late 1600s, and two pre-Inca dolls from the 14th-15th centuries, one of which depicts a mother with her son in her arms. Advance reservations are recommended – tel. 060608 – and visitors must
CIVIS CIVITAS CIVILITAS
29 JUNE-18 OCT Plaster models document the buildings of ancient Rome in an exhibition that explores the “relationship between city, citizenship and civilization in the Roman world.” Over 60 models were built mainly by Italo Gismondi for the 1937 Augustan Exhibition of Romanity. Mercati di Traiano, Via 4 Novembre, www.mercatiditraiano.it.
FILIPPO DE PISIS
17 JUNE-20 SEPT Palazzo Altemps, one of Rome’s finest museums, presents a retrospective dedicated to the Italian artist and poet Filippo de Pisis (1896-1956). The exhibition of 40 works on paper and watercolours highlights the sensitive, delicate nature of de Pisis who is best known for his cityscapes, metaphysically-inspired maritime scenes and still lifes. Later in life the extravagant de Pisis lived in Venice where he was ferried around in his personal gondola. Tickets must be purchased online via the Coopculture website, for more information tel. 0639967701. Palazzo Altemps, Piazza di S. Apollinare 46, www.coopculture.it.
